Asserts that traditional approaches to multivariate analysis, including standard linear regression techniques, ignore the special character of count data. Explicates three suitable alternatives to standard regression techniques, a simple Poisson regression, a modified Poisson regression, and a negative binomial model. (MJP)

Uses a graphing calculator to predict the record for running a mile, throwing a shot put, and high jumping for any year in the future and the probable record for any year before statistics were kept, based on the statistical analysis of prior records. Data tables and a computer program are provided. (MDH)

U.S. schools are failing to prepare students for a technological, information-based society. Recent study showed that high school dropouts were better equipped to use consumer-friendly technology than high school or college graduates. Because only 15% of U.S. jobs will be unskilled, United States must rapidly revise its curriculum to stress…

Presents 5 school and home activities for the K-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8 levels appropriate for beginning the school year that incorporate problem solving, collecting and analyzing data, and exploring patterns. Topics include a shopping spree, seat assignment, map-interpretation skills, and probability. Includes reproducible worksheets. (MDH)

A nonparametric multicategorical model for multiple-choice data is proposed as an extension of the binary spline model of J. O. Ramsay and M. Abrahamowicz (1989). Results of two Monte Carlo studies illustrate the model, which approximates probability functions by rational splines. (SLD)

This article describes a mathematical model that connects mathematics with social studies. Students use mathematics to model independent versus convoyed ship deployments and sinkings to determine if the British should have convoyed their merchant ships during World War I. During the war, the British admiralty opposed sending merchant ships grouped…

Students' first semester on campus may set the stage for their alcohol use/misuse throughout college. The authors surveyed 274 randomly sampled first-semester freshmen at a large southwestern university on their past 2 weeks' binge drinking, their high school binge drinking, and psychosocial factors possibly associated with drinking. They…

The 2006 NCTM Sixty-eighth Yearbook focuses on students' and teachers' learning in statistics centered on a set of activities. Topics include the relation between mathematics and statistics, the development and enrichment of mathematical concepts through the use of statistics, and a discussion of the research related to teaching and learning…

This document offers instructional materials for a 60-hour course on math operations involving decimals, fractions, proportions, statistics, probability, measurement, geometry, and linear algebra as applied in the workplace. The course was part of a workplace literacy project developed by Mercer County Community College (New Jersey) and its…

Twelve resource units are presented for the teaching of science and mathematics to gifted students in secondary school. The units present an introduction, tips for teachers, objectives, activities, and materials lists. The units include: "Functions, Relations, and Graphs" (Priscilla Watts); "More Wham to the Gram (A Study of the…

One of the most common misconceptions about probability is the belief that successive outcomes of a random process are not independent. This belief has been dubbed the "gambler's fallacy". The belief that non-normative expectations such as the gambler's fallacy are widely held has inspired probability and statistics instruction that attempts to…

Since 1982, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has published a student periodical five times a year. Each four-page issue focuses on a single theme, developing it from a simple opening-page activity through more challenging extensions at a higher level of understanding. In this document each four-page issue published from September,…

This issue of the journal contains abstracts and critical comments for 10 published reports on research in mathematics education. The reports concern children's school mobility and achievement, preservice teachers' sources of decisions, spatial visualization in boys and girls, rote versus conceptual emphases in teaching probability, using drawings…

This document has been written to relate to the "Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve" published in 1985. Part 1 of the document provides a brief summary of important characteristics of a strong elementary mathematics program. Part 2 of the document presents a portrait of a desired…

A quasi-experimental design with two experimental groups and one control group was used to evaluate the use of two books in the Quantitative Literacy Series, "Exploring Data" and "Exploring Probability." Group X teachers were those who had attended a workshop on the use of the materials and were using the materials during the…